The Relationship Between Reading and Selected Characteristics of Children with Learning Disabilities and Advantages and Disadvantages of Four Reading Approaches As They Relate to Learning Disabled Children: A Review of the Literature.

Hoover, John J.

The thesis presents a literature review of selected characteristics of learning disabled children and the relationship between these characteristics and reading. Thirty-three characteristics are discussed, divided into three categories: selected cognitive abilities, speech and language development, and selected behavioral and emotional-social characteristics. A discussion of Piaget's theory of cognitive development and its relationship to reading is also included. A slight positive relationship was found between reading and four Piagetian tasks: symbolic functioning, conservation, classification, and seriation. Four approaches to teaching reading to learning disabled children are considered (the language experience approach, the phonics approach, the individualized approach, and the programed reading approach) and their advantages and disadvantages discussed. Among other things, reading was found to be related to such things as concept formation, divergent and convergent thinking, visual reception, and expressive language abilities. The concept of maturational lag was also found to be an important variable. Research was found to be either inconclusive or contradictory concerning the relationship between reading and such things as visual acuity, memory, and hyperactivity. Modality preference training is also considered. (Author/DLS)